00:01 Intro 01:22 Zheng He 04:24 Vasco Dagama 06:31 Christopher Columbus 07:21 Open Letter 08:16 Columbus Continued 09:29 Outro 10:00 Credits

I love how even though Australia is left out we still at least get a mention of being left out. New Zealand is left out of even that

Zheng He based his work on an extensive knowledge of the trading routes and a prowess of governance, travelled the world as a means not to conquer, but to connect. Sure he wasn't innovative, at least not in the way de Gama and Columbus were, but he expanded and reconciled the ways in which we view the world in a way that I have the most respect for.

what i love is Zheng He did not bring disaster to the places he visited, just political visit, trade, and so on ! He brought giraffe back to China! how cool it was!

I'd rather be like Zheng He. To coin a phrase: "I'd rather be remembered as smart by a few, than remembered by all for being a fool."

Columbus may not have been a lucky idiot, but I'm going to have to be one to get a good score on the test today.

dang. "Indian" meaning from East Indies, Indonesia, blew my mind. almost everyone thinks it comes from, well, India.

Who else is here for online quarantine school?

I think it's worth mentioning that Columbus wasn't even the first European to discover the Americas... The Norse explorer, Lief Erikson, is generally accepted as the first European to discover North America when he was blown off course on his way to Greenland (Although there are some written records about it that predate even this event). He discovered Newfoundland 500 years before Columbus ever set sail, and established a small settlement called "Vinland," now known as, "L'anse aux Meadows"

Am I the only one that loves his humor...? He always puts a fun side to learning History that I enjoy.

It was in Portugal Colombus knew of land in the american continent. He was born in Italy, came to study to Portugal, were got his Nautical Permit/License, and later married a Portuguese. Portugal already knew of existence of land in that part of the world due to maps compiled from the otoman empire, in modern day turkey. Portugal fished that north american/canada area for cod fish. And don't forget also the portuguese, you may want the check the roots of the name newfoundland and labrador (modern day canada). In 1499 and 1500, Portuguese explorers João Fernandes Lavrador and Pêro de Barcelos mapped the coast of Labrador, thus naming the land "Labrador" on topographical maps of the period. European settlement was largely concentrated in coastal communities, particularly those south of St. Lewis and Cape Charles, and are among Canada's oldest European settlements. The name Newfoundland is derived from English as "New Found Land" (a translation from the Portuguese Terra Nova, still reflected in the province's French language name, "Terre-Neuve"). The origin of Labrador is credited to João Fernandes Lavrador, the Portuguese navigator who explored the region.

I had to watch this for school... *this is the first time I have enjoyed a school assigned video*

I would like to be Zheng He because of his knowledge and how he was able to lead over 300 treasure ships at that time.

I LOVE THIS SHOW

The best part of this comments section is all of the Portuguese getting salty because John called them scrappy lmao

IMO De Gama was a baller. A seriously underrated admiral who's campaigns honestly are the stuff of legend. The victories he managed to pull off with the resources he had against ginormous empires with endless resources are amazing to me.

So, the rulers of the world were basically: 16st = Portugal/China 17st = Spain 18 and 19st = UK 20st = US/USSR 21st = Elon musk

Definitely Zheng He. No matter how great/lasting the legacy is, if it is based on a negative outcome it's just not as fulfilling. Decency is always better :)

Halfway done cramming for AP World

Da Gamo had a beard, obvious winner!

One final point, Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese on their second voyage to India after Vasco da Gama's initial voyage. Brazil is also part of the Americas and was discovered independently of Columbus' voyage. With all that said. da Gama had a much more profound and direct influence on the global economy. The Spanish discoveries didn't pay off until decades later when they "discovered" Mexico and later on Peru.

I'd prefer to be Zheng He

2:29 For anyone wondering, 400 ft is 121.92 metres. I still can’t understand why Americans and British use these weird units of length but they do, so I though I might as well learn it.

Hi CrashCourse I am wondering, you should make social history videos. I think it's important how people lived in the past. Yes it's boring compared to history of warfare and general human world history but you have a great sense of humour to make it interesting. Also I believe that it's important to understand how people think in the past and what their norms are. Knowing our ancestors lived differently it would be interesting to see and compare on how they lived in the past and how we live today. Maybe mentioned how technologies improved our daily lives? Thank you. Regards, Kenneth

I want to know about the Scandinavians who possibly landed in the Americas 200 years before Columbus. but that's just me

zheng he was a Muslim, something i didn't know

Vasco da Gama ! man get your Portuguese right John Green !! xD

Zheng He was the most impressive, followed by Vasco de Gama. However, Christopher Columbus had the largest impact, followed by Vasco de Gama.

When we learned about Zheng He in school, my teacher pronounced it "Jong Hur" and we all started shouting "You know nothing Zheng He" xD

my soul dies a little when we have to watch one of your videos in class

I would definitely want to be Zheng He. He was, as John said, a smart administrator with excellent sailing skills.

I start watching this to study for history midterms realize halfway thru tht it doesnt have all the info i need yet continue watching it cuz its interesting and awesome. 😀

I never knew about Zheng He... but hearing and knowing about him now. He may just be my favorite explorer. Dude sailed with THREE HUNDRED ships and 27k people lmaooo that's like game of thrones level voyages on steroids! Dude was certified rizz!

But the vikings was the first to european to discover americas 500 years before coloumbus C:

I Feel that Zheng he is the greatest mariner of the 15th century because had more power in his ships and used his trips for trading purposes

Zheng He is the best! P.S. I'm pretty sure he thought the giraffes were unicorns! (Yes, I honestly do.)

Hi! I'm a student and my class, teacher and I really enjoy watching CrashCourse! You guys are awesome all the time! You guys make history fun... not that history is not fun because I love history! :-)

Crash Course so good, that my funny World History teacher assigned us to watch this episode for Homework.

I come for the history, but stay for the burns of John from the past.

Portuguese girl over here! Thanks Mr. Green teaching me that portuguesa were just glorified Pirates (they Never teach us that), Please don't call us stinky, I shower every day, finally rejoice! Every singela portuguese word you said was mist pronunced (and the catellan onde too). Ps: it's like the 5th the I'm watching the series, I'm a bit addicted to crash course

Well Zheng He is such a beast, so I would pick him. He could fit like all of Vasco de Gama's ship onto the deck of a single ship!

I believe vasco was the best explorer due to the knowledge of the world, seas, maps, ships, and exploring. and his major trading post in India.

This was actually the first good crash course history video, that wasn’t historically skewed. Congratulations!

What about Pedro Álvares Cabral and Fernão Magalhães????

So turns out Columbus first went to the Portuguese for funding but because of their superior mathematics from the Muslims, they actually knew the size of the earth and knew getting from Europe to Asia would be impossible with their technology at the time so they said no.

I'd totally have been Zheng He, proving once and for all that testicles are not tied to courage.

Honestly thank you so much John Green, these videos are the epitome of cramming information before the AP exam.

Zheng he is 1000x better then Columbus! And you know it but you keep denying :)

Contratulations on the show, and specially on this one. It helped me redefine the idea I had about the Discoveries and Vasco da Gama. A big thanks from Portugal (yes, we do exist!)

Simple Vasco da Gama the creator of the modern trade, besides the Spanish, British, French and Dutch, always came after the pioneer nation of discoveries, Portugal.

Funny, informative, AND topical. You have exceeded every single ruler in history for entertainment value.

Is anyone also awesome because he is John Green??,-John if you are reading this ,I love your books you are so incredible!!!!

Plot Twist: Conspiracy Theory, Columbus was Portuguese and the whole idea was to tie up Spain in fruitless endeavour to economically weaken it. Kinda worked at first, but the whole Inca and Aztec gold kinda screw up the plan. And why do they say this, because the Portuguese king D. João II kept pushing the line further west, way beyond the needs to successfully do the wind turn around of south Atlantic, so supposedly he knew about a continent or at least a big island around that area. Plot twist: Columbus was Spanish, and due to some dubious family history and secrecy changed his name and did all this for fame and fortune, also possibly a spy in Portugal at the service of Spain. Or a double spy, sources disagree. :P Plot Twist: I don't know!! History is murky :SS P.S.: This is just teasing and conspiracy theories, not backed up, yet...! :P

im 22, work 50-68 hours a week, is it too late for me to go to college? i have so much passion for learning, but didnt have all the opportunity some people had.

As a portuguese I feel obligated to choose Vasco da Gama. Not only was he a great navigator, he has also been imortalized in one of our greatest literary works!

I’m watching this instead of studying my notes bc honestly it’s more helpful

This channel should make more history videos.

I'd want Zheng Ha By miles... speaking from a perspective that I'm a descendant of the people that currently has to live under the monstrous legacy of Columbus. A legacy that still treats my demographic as a "lesser evolved other" & left millions dead or murdered in Columbus's wake... basically things were relatively peaceful for 100's of years until the Portuguese & Spaniards. History is a damn hard lesson... that should never be sugar coated for anyone.

John as a Portuguese student I spent all my 8th year learning about de gama

so China was the most advanced country in the 15th century!!!

LOOK! I'M IN CRASH COURSE!

Just to add about that Line of Demarcation that it was settled in the Treaty of Tordesillas, considerered the birth certificate of globalization. In the negotiations of that treaty the portuguese king insisted that the line was pushed west and coincidentally (or not) it would include a part of Brazil, only officially discovered 6 years later.

this channel is the only the reason why i'm passing ap world history .

Lol halfway done cramming for the AP world history exam!

I would prefer to be a capable administrator and brilliant sailor, although I would still prefer to be a. Christian(Episcopalian specifically), and b. non-castrated. By the way thank you John Green for your awesome and interesting videos. I admire the way you are able to so effectively teach history in spans of ten minutes and find your episodes intriguing, amusing, and most of all enjoyable. Thank you for being awesome.

If he hadn't hit the Caribbean his crew would have died. Since he underestimated the size of the world (which is odd because it was known already) he didn't have enough supplies on board.

Henry was a navigator as well he commanded a fleet that attacked ceuta and yes Portugal controlled the Indian ocean by controlling important ports in the straight of malaca and by arranging allies along the African and south Arabian cost line

Vasco da Gama's travel had a profit of 3000%, yep

I really see little to admire in Columbus's "accomplishment". He was a pillaging slaver who was instrumental in beginning one of history's most sustained acts of genocide. And *yes*, he did have dumb luck - while you may argue that Columbus's mistakes in the measurements of the longitudinal span of Europe and the width of the Atlantic Ocean were understandable, it is pretty hard to deny that if there hadn't been a continent he was unaware of in his path, he would have either starved at sea or been killed in a mutiny (prior to everyone else starving at sea anyway). Ferdinand and Isabella were so sick of his endless lobbying for money to make his (seemingly suicidal) mission, they agreed to lucrative terms based on the theory that he would go die at sea and they'd be rid of him. It was their good luck, and everyone in the America's bad luck, that he didn't. His daring in being willing to take the risk of sailing west to the Indies is muted in my view by what are, to me, his less than honorable reasons for doing so. He had hardly landed before he began to kidnap and enslave the people he found. He quickly identified the peaceful peoples he found as a resource suitable for plunder. He claimed he wanted to spread Christendom but preferred selling people to saving them. After his "discovery", he became the governor of Hispaniola and, according to his successor, Francisco de Bobadilla, ruled with a topaz fist there. He was sent back to Spain in disgrace, to be released with a slap on the wrist because hey, he won a lot of land for Spain and made Ferdinand look like a genius for supporting him. He spent the few remaining years of his life as a pompous blowhard, writing books about how amazing he was and about how Spain still owed him money. So add narcissism to the other faults. Historical evidence is too fragmentary to support a diagnosis of antisocial or narcissistic personality disorder, but it certainly doesn't rule it out either in my view. Seriously, I am asking anyone to help me understand this: *What exactly am I supposed to "admire" about this loathsome man?*

The great Admiral Zheng He's boss was the mighty, energetic Emperor Yongle. He was also a curious Emperor about the unexplored worlds, so he addressed an Imperial Decree to Zheng He to set out the strategic guidelines for the naval expedition and declared, "Thou shall only follow Heaven's Way, abide My words, follow reason and know your place, do not violate and overstep, must not bully the little, must not invade the weak, perhaps then we may all share peace and prosperity."

7:16 😂😂😂😂😂😂 you're amazing

-9999999 points for misspelling Vasco da Gama's surname.

Portugal had already an empire in Africa in fact it is rather well known that Portugal was the first colonial empire in the world Love ur channel btw A Portuguese guy🇵🇹

"Which meant that christian crusading spirit was quite strong there presumably because muslims had brought so much stability and prosperity to the region". Only if you don't take into account that the capture of Ceuta in Morocco in 1415 was in part meant to fight Granadine and North African pirates who in some cases plundered the Iberian coastline all the way till northern Spain ever since the start of the Reconquista. For this reason Portugal has in fact the oldest operating navy in the world. "Vasco da Gama was the first of Henry's protégés to make it around Africa and into the Indian Ocean". Prince Henry died in 1460 and Vasco da Gama was born in 1469.

Thanks for that Doctor Who reference

Jflem and the WHAPstars would like to be like Columbus because we want to have a lasting impact on the world. We watch your videos all the time. Keep up the good work, John!

3:01, I would just like to point out the master sword (LoZ) in the pile with all the other swordy stuff.

2012 BRUH MY TEACHER IS MAKING ME WATCH THS NOW!!!

There is a wonderful book by Gavin Menzies that suggest the Chinese went much farther than the Indian Ocean. Even possibly "discovering" America around 1420. He makes a very compelling argument.

10 years later and I’m searching this again

Master Sword from Legend of Zelda at 3:00

Zheng he lived during ming dynasty, not yuan dynasty, so china was not ruled by the mongols.

The Portuguese said they were seeking spices and Christians. Not gold. Also, this gives Columbus far more credit than he actually deserves. Yes, he vastly underestimated the size of the earth, despite scholars of the time knowing how big the earth was. Spain decided to fund his expedition with only 3 ships out of desperation and a feeling of nothing to lose. Finally, anyone who set sail west from Europe would have run into the Americas. Columbus didn't accomplish anything spectacular. In fact, had the Americas not been there his expedition would have been lost to the sea as they would never have reached their target of Asia.

He makes history interesting and fun. He's one of the reasons I actually enjoy social studies a little bit now. (Well, mainly because of my no nonsense, funny and cool teacher).

Hey John could you answer me a question? I will be quick about it. (You wont even read this but were we go). So Portugal is a "scrappy, little country", well tell me what do you think about this facts: 1--Portugal explored more area than all you scrappy big country all together; 2--Vasco Da Gama (yeah that's how you write it) hasn't the only greatest sailors that were portuguese, have you ever heard of Fernão de Magalhães, well you know, he wasn't that important he was just the captain of the 1st ship that crossed the Strait that has his name, and you know where was he from? Well he was from "scrappy, little Portugal"; 3--"Scrappy, little Portugal" was one of the 1st countries to have it's borders defined with a treaty with Spain on September 12, 1297 (well you know just 479 years before you were even independent, oh i forgot you only got recognized has a free country seven years later (1783) ) 4--"Scrappy, little Portuga" was the FIRST country to abolish Death Penalty, while you, well i guess you never abolished it totally did you? 5--And just to end this because i could go on for another 10 hours, but i don't really need because you have so much to do on your BIG country that you can't even read a damn comment that it has the objective of doing a constructive critic about your videos, which I personally think that are awesome, so please if you could answer me do so and if you can't, well i will kepp writing these until you change your vocabulary, just like we did with Pepsi.

Probably Zheng He, to be honest. Seems the least evil.

Fun fact: when passing through Singapore, the Portuguese were denied passage, so instead of talking it out, they just bombarded the city, razing it to the ground, and it was only relevant again when the Brits landed there 200 or 300 years later

i had to watch this for a school assignment and the part about zheng he being a eunuch was cut out lmao

"We'll just keep it, if it's all the same to you" lol

Isn't it even harder to hit islands than a continent

Vasco da Gama was by far the best sailor. The video is nice, but threads very lightly on the Portuguese strategy on the Indian Ocean and its impact. The architect of this strategy was Afonso de Albuquerque. He knew the Portuguese had no resources to face the large powers in Asia, so he established a series of strategic outposts to control trade. The central point was Goa, which controlled the trade with India. On the west, Ormus blocked the access of Turks and Persians to the Indian Ocean. On the East, Malacca controlled the spice trade with the Maluku Islands. Albuquerque waged war to conquer these bases, it is correct to call him an invader, but this was no different than what local powers were doing. Albuquerque also knew he could not keep hold of his bases without local popular support, so he set out to create it. Locals who converted to Catholicism would become Portuguese subjects, and thus could participate in the lucrative trade and in politics. In many cases Portuguese would marry into local families, strengthening this link. This lead to the creation of a powerful community of Goan Catholics who in effect ruled Goa. Descendants of this elite community include the present prime minister of Portugal, António Costa, British MPs Keith and Valerie Vaz, or hacks as Dinesh D'Souza. An offshoot of this community, the Mangalorean Catholics, include people as the late Indian defence minister, George Fernandes, or actress Freida Pinto. Later the Portuguese would attempt to conquer Sri Lanka. This would lead to a long war with the local kingdoms. There is no doubt that the Portuguese invasion of Sri Lanka was violent and caused a lot of suffering, but it would not be possible without local support. And this support could not come only from forced recruitment, as it would be easy to defect to the opposing field. The reality is that, by converting to Catholicism and joining the Portuguese camp, lower Sinhalese could attain higher positions than they could under the local kings. This is why such a large number of Sinhalese converted, why today the Sinhalese catholic community is still large and why there are so many Portuguese names in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese were also expert diplomats. Dealing with China, they understood that they could never impose anything on the empire, but that if they gained local interests, mutual agreements could be reached. The Portuguese engaged in contraband with the Guangzhou merchants, and after many incidents, the Guangdong governors decided it was better to collect taxes. They enlisted the Portuguese to eradicate the local pirates and in exchange gave the very small Macau to the Portuguese. Even after the decline in Portuguese power, the Chinese kept Macau in Portuguese hands because it was in the interest of China to channel western trade through a location that was easy to control. After 100 years of control of the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese would ultimately be overrun by the Dutch. The Portuguese decided to focus their efforts on Brazil and gave up on the Indian trade. Nevertheless, even then, another local community in the eastern part of the Timor island, converted to Catholicism and joined the Portuguese camp. By siding with the Portuguese, they could maintain their independence from the local sultanates and from the Dutch invaders, while Portuguese interference in those remote islands was minimal. Finally, in order to obtain support against the Dutch, the Portuguese gave Mumbai to the British, opening the door to British rue over India. The idea that the Portuguese resorted only to violence to attain and keep their power is very simplistic. The Portuguese had no means to wage large wars in the Indian Ocean, thus they allied to local powers or, more interestingly and uniquely, created they local allies. This means that even today there are important communities in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia that have their origin in the Portuguese era, and even one independent nation, East Timor. There are Portuguese influences in several Asian languages and quite a few historical buildings of Portuguese origin. Most importantly, Vasco da Gama opened the route to the Indian Ocean to larger European powers, having a huge historical impact.

If all had gone according to Columbus' plan, his crew would have all died of dehydration at sea. His fate would become a mystery of world history. I think that dispels any notion that his plan was in any sense well thought out.

I really like these videos. My teacher is using them as an aid to my World Civilizations class which is really cool because I'd read John Greene's grocery list (; Unfortunately, I was disappointed by their approach to Columbus. John Greene usually seems to be a very active humanist, fighting for women's rights, education, etc. Yet, he glosses over that A) Columbus didn't discover America, the Vikings did first and the Native Americans were already there. B) Columbus did only find a handful of islands and he never even accepted that they were new territory; he swore until his death that he was in the East Indies and C) he brutally murdered, raped, and tortured the Native Americans, which Greene even vaguely joked about. I didn't think that was cool. Other than that, these are typically great videos, I appreciate them (:

The fact that the only Crash Course World History that talks about the Portuguese says they we're some "glorified pirates" makes me sad. Could've talked about Portuguese Venetian sugar and spice rivalry, Feitorias and more explorers, but nope. Let's just neglect a 15th-16th century major power and call them pirates...

Just in case there's misunderstanding here, Zheng He was from Ming Dynasty, which China was no longer ruled by the Mongols.

We watched this in school, but I was really tired and forgot to take notes for the last part so here I am at 9 pm doing homework.

Did you see that red cross? (2.41) it means that ship was from Portugal and not Spain lol... Watch out when you draw it something xD If you think about... that symbol belongs to Order of Christ, and the Order of Christ was the former Knights Templar order in Portugal, after the suppression of the Templars in 1312, by direct order of the Pope Clement V. Pls do a note... images are also history. Btw sorry for my bad english, best regards Ruben Ferreira.

I think Colombus in that comparison was getting some of de Gama's due credit.. de Gama is arguably a good part of the reason why Colombus got funds in the first place. And the trade routes and piracy, as weak of an influence as Portugal might have had overall in dominating asian commerce, were still boatloads of riches in the eyes of europeans who were seeing great returns on that investment - which is why it was the Age of Discovery in general and not just a couple of roadbumps (islands) that kept europeans from reaching any 'new' continent.

De Gama and the Zheng He didn't do anything that anybody else has not done before. They only followed the coast. Columbus did something new, he dare to sail on the open ocean. This was unknown and unexplored. Not many people would do that. I is a gigantic acomplishment.